Hour-a-Thon Fundraiser Platform
Per-hour pledge tracking, personal donation pages, and automated collection — everything you need to run an hour-a-thon fundraiser that raises real money. Zero platform fees.
What is an hour-a-thon?
An hour-a-thon (also written “hour a thon”) is a fundraising event where participants collect pledges for every hour they spend on a continuous activity — serving, reading, playing music, praying, or walking — or a flat amount for completing the challenge. Participants sign up, get a personal donation page, and share it with family and friends. Sponsors pledge per hour or give a flat donation, and when the hours are logged, per-hour pledges convert to real dollars.
Hour-a-thons are especially popular with churches running 24-hour prayer and serve relays, bands and music programs running play-a-thons, and youth groups running read-a-thons and volunteer serve-a-thons. The activity changes, but the pledge-per-hour model stays the same — which is what makes it one of the most flexible a-thon formats there is.
Why hour-a-thons raise more
Effort is easy to sponsor
Pledging $10 an hour feels small, but the hours add up fast. A participant who commits to six hours turns a modest per-hour pledge into a meaningful gift — and sponsors love rewarding real effort.
Works for almost any activity
Reading, serving, playing an instrument, praying, walking — if it can be measured in hours, it can anchor an hour-a-thon. That flexibility means you can build the event around what your group already loves to do.
Built-in momentum
Continuous events create their own energy. A 24-hour relay or an all-day play-a-thon keeps participants and sponsors engaged hour after hour, and a live leaderboard turns it into a friendly competition.
Low barrier to join
There's no minimum fitness level and no equipment to buy. A five-year-old can read for an hour and a retiree can pray for an hour, which makes hour-a-thons a fit for every age in your organization.
Built for hour-a-thons
Everything your church, band, youth group, or nonprofit needs to run an hour-a-thon fundraiser.
Per-hour pledge tracking
Sponsors pledge $5-25 per hour. After the event, enter each participant's completed hours and per-hour donations convert to dollar amounts automatically. Per-hour pledges reward effort and raise more than flat donations alone.
Zero platform fees
Donations go to your organization (less standard Stripe card processing on online pledges). The only cost is standard Stripe processing (2.9% + 30¢ per card transaction). Cash and check donations cost nothing. Through TipShare, we go a step further — 10% of donor tip proceeds (after standard payment processing) flows back to your organization. No other fundraising platform pays you back.
Personal donation pages + QR codes
Every participant gets their own page with a shareable link and QR code. Text it to grandma, post it in the group chat, or print it on a flyer. Sponsors donate in 30 seconds.
Flat + per-hour donations
Donors choose: pledge per hour ($10/hour) or give a flat amount ($50) for finishing the challenge. Both options on every donation page. Flexible for every sponsor.
Live leaderboard
Participants and teams see where they stand in real time. Nothing motivates a reader, player, or server like watching their name climb the leaderboard hour by hour.
CSV upload + automated collection
Upload your whole roster at once with a CSV. After you enter hours, per-hour card sponsors are charged automatically. Groups using online platforms collect 95%+ of pledges vs. 55-65% with paper.
How to run your hour-a-thon
From setup to collection in four steps.
Create your hour-a-thon
Name your event, pick the activity, set the challenge length, and upload your participant list via CSV. Takes about 60 seconds.
Participants share donation pages
Every participant gets a unique donation page with a shareable link and QR code. Sponsors choose per-hour pledges or a flat amount for finishing the challenge.
Event day — log the hours
Participants read, serve, play, pray, or walk. Log hours completed from sign-in sheets or checkpoint cards. Per-hour pledges convert to dollar amounts automatically.
Collect automatically
Hours go in, charges go out. Per-hour card sponsors are charged based on the actual hours completed, and you track everything from the dashboard.
Popular hour-a-thon formats
The hour-a-thon model adapts to whatever your group already does. These are the formats organizations run most often.
24-hour prayer or serve relay
Churches split a full day into hourly shifts and assign members to cover each one, raising money around the clock for a building fund or mission trip. See our 24-hour relay fundraiser guide for a full playbook.
Play-a-thon
Band and music programs sponsor students to play their instruments for a set number of hours — a natural fit for practice-heavy groups. It works for full ensembles or individual band fundraisers.
Serve-a-thon
Youth groups and volunteers collect pledges for every hour spent serving the community. Our serve-a-thon fundraiser guide walks through planning, safety, and sponsor outreach.
Per-hour pledges raise more
Flat donations only: $200 per participant
8 sponsors at $25 each. Decent — but you're leaving money on the table.
Per-hour pledges: $320 per participant
8 sponsors at $5/hour, participant completes 8 hours. Same number of sponsors, 1.6x the money. Per-hour pledging rewards effort and motivates participants to commit to more hours.
What you keep on a donation
PledgeAthon charges zero platform fees. On online card donations, the only deduction is standard Stripe processing. Here's the math on a $50.00 online card donation (Stripe standard rate of 2.9% + $0.30, no platform fee):
Cash and check pledges have no processing fee at all — your organization keeps 100%.
Frequently asked questions
What is an hour-a-thon fundraiser?
An hour-a-thon is a fundraising event where participants collect pledges for each hour they spend on a continuous activity — reading, serving, playing music, praying, or walking — or a flat amount for completing the challenge. Sponsors pledge per hour, so a participant who commits to more hours raises more. It's a flexible format that works for almost any group.
How much can an hour-a-thon raise?
It depends on your participant count, the hourly pledge rate, and how many hours each person commits to. A youth group of 30 participants each securing five sponsors at $10/hour for a 6-hour event can raise $9,000. Per-hour pledges reward effort, so setting a clear, achievable hour target for each participant is the single biggest lever on your total.
What activities work for an hour-a-thon?
Almost anything continuous. Churches run 24-hour prayer and serve relays. Bands and music programs run play-a-thons where students play their instruments for sponsored hours. Youth groups run read-a-thons, walk-a-thons, and volunteer serve-a-thons. If you can measure it in hours, you can run an hour-a-thon around it.
How do we track hours during the event?
Use sign-in and sign-out sheets, checkpoint cards, or a shift log to record how many hours each participant completed. After the event, enter each participant's hours into your PledgeAthon dashboard and per-hour pledges convert to dollar amounts automatically. Flat card donations are charged right when the donor gives; cash and check donations are recorded for manual collection.
How much does PledgeAthon cost?
Zero platform fees. The only cost is standard Stripe processing: 2.9% + $0.30 per card transaction. Cash and check donations have no fees at all. No monthly charges, no contracts, no setup fees. Plus, TipShare puts money back in your pocket — we return 10% of donor tip proceeds (after standard payment processing) to your organization.
Can we run a 24-hour relay hour-a-thon?
Yes. A 24-hour relay is one of the most popular hour-a-thon formats, especially for churches raising money for a building fund or mission trip. Split the 24 hours into shifts, assign participants to cover each hour, and let per-hour pledges add up around the clock. Every shift can share their own donation page.
Run your hour-a-thon with zero platform fees
Free to set up. Per-hour pledge tracking built in. Every participant gets their own donation page. Ready in 60 seconds.
No credit card required. No contracts.